


Why Did You Leave Me Here to Burn

by EchoShimmer



Series: Lazarus!Tim AU [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Mild Gore, Villain Tim Drake, Whumptober 2020, borders between major and minor imo, broken trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26977822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EchoShimmer/pseuds/EchoShimmer
Summary: It’s been over two years since Bruce last saw his son. Tim Drake is not the same boy he once was.(AKA, an alternate resolution to Lazarus!Tim part one.)
Relationships: Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Ra's al Ghul
Series: Lazarus!Tim AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1774183
Comments: 25
Kudos: 299





	Why Did You Leave Me Here to Burn

**Author's Note:**

> This is, as the summary indicated, an alternate path for my Lazarus!Tim AU universe. Having read that fic would probably help give a lot of context for what happens here, but it shouldn’t be required to understand the basic story as a whole. If you're particularly worried about who the character death tag is about, it's down in the end note. Stay safe :)
> 
> This is based in a universe where Kon and Bart didn’t come back, or at least not in the same way that they did in WMOOD. As people who have read that fic know, that event was really the turning point for the Bats' search. Without it you get… well, this. 
> 
> To everyone waiting for the official sequel, I plan to focus most of my attention on that once Wumptober is officially over. It will, with any luck, start posting by the end of the year. Until then, hopefully this will tide you over :)  
> \---  
> Title from I Have Questions by Camila Cabello

Batman- Bruce- pushed the jet as fast as he could towards his destination, ignoring the alarmed and concerned voices that forced their way into his ear. They would fade off over time. There was no way for his fellow Gotham vigilante’s to catch up to him or stop him now, and he knew that the Justice League members they might call out of concern would not agree to interfere. This was a personal mission. They wouldn't get in his way of a very motivated Batman.

The machine around him was whining after the extended time on max performance mode, but the desert compound was already in sight. Bruce’s hands flew through the landing procedure on autopilot, brain thoroughly distracted. He was up and out of his seat before the Batjet had even fully touched down.

The call that brought him here had come in suddenly in the middle of the day. Bruce had been mid-meeting at WE, playing up the somewhat clueless Brucie act as usual. Then his phone had started ringing, and just a glance at the caller ID had Bruce standing up mid-presentation and excusing himself from the talk. He trusted Lucius to handle things on his own. This was more important.

Talia al-Ghul would not call him without a reason.

The Daughter of the Demon’s head had been off the map entirely for over a year, ever since she made the decision to officially abandon her position with the League of Assassins when things had grown, in her words, “too perilous for her to stay.” The naming of an official Heir that wasn’t her or her son had upset her rank among the Assassins even further than it had when Damian first left to become Robin, and she had to decide to cut her losses and disappear at some point or risk her life. 

Talia had been in rather frequent contact with Bruce shortly after his return from the timestream, assisting in Bruce’s attempt to track Ra’s al Ghul’s movements, and she had given Bruce a burner number just in case before she had officially gone into hiding. Since then, there had been no reason for either of them to reach out. If she was breaking that silence then something big had happened.

Sure enough, the news was big. There had been an urgent report from one of Talia’s remaining League contacts about a huge, base-wide battle had broken out in The Cradle and a couple periphery League bases, and it was rumored that the Demon and the Heir were at the center of the chaos.

They were saying that this was a coup, that League members were turning against each other. Bruce didn't really care about that part. More important was the fact that this was the most definitive lead on Ghost’s current location that he had received in over two years. He had finally caught up to Tim, and now his son might be in danger from whoever was attempting to overthrow Ra’s.

Bruce had been into the Bunker and flying out in the spare Batjet stored there in less than ten minutes, not bothering to wait for any of the other Bats to catch up. There was no time to wait.

\---

It’s been more than two years, since Bruce had last seen his second youngest son.

Tim had been given a bad run of things before Bruce had even been thrown into the timestream, with his father and multiple friends dying in startlingly rapid succession. Bruce had honestly been surprised at the time that Tim had managed to hold together as well as he did. Bruce had tried his best in the aftermath to give Tim the security that the boy had never been offered, had tried to strengthen their relationship as father and son as well as partners. Things had been getting better, slowly but surely.

And then Batman had been thrown into the timestream by Darkseid. Everyone had thought Bruce was dead. Except for Tim.

That had been the turning point for Tim, Bruce later learned. His second youngest’s support system had fallen to pieces all over again, and no one had believed his detective’s instinct that Bruce wasn’t dead. Tim had been stripped of the Robin title, been practically forced out on his own if he wanted a chance to prove himself correct. He had been forced to make alliances with people that he never would have normally, worked side by side with the League of Assassins, in order to accomplish what he saw as his only remaining purpose: saving Bruce.

Tim had died, and been revived by the Demon’s head himself on the path of accomplishing his goal.

By the time Bruce had been pulled back to the present day, Tim had been all but unrecognizable and yet painfully the same. They had only talked briefly in private that night, but Bruce could see the cracks that had been made in his son’s mind. Not all of the wounds had been inflicted by his time with the enemy, that much was clear. Tim was obviously hurting in more ways than one. But to Bruce’s chagrin there had been no way to get Tim out, what with how deeply ensnared he was and how weak Bruce was at the time. 

Getting on the plane without his son had been one of the hardest things Bruce had ever done. In that moment, he had promised himself and Tim that he would return as soon as possible. He would not abandon Tim in the hands of the enemy.

After Bruce’s return to Gotham, the entirety of the Bats had furiously thrown themselves into trying to track down their missing member, but Ra’s and Tim had disappeared. Tim had been officially named as the Demon’s Heir two days after Bruce’s return to reality, and then they both had just vanished off the face of the map. Bruce’s contacts all had nothing. The Justice League could not track them.

Eventually Bruce had recovered enough to return to acting as Batman. It was shortly after that when the rumors of the Heir, Ghost, Tim’s League persona, had started drifting in days to weeks after events happened. He was supposedly running missions, but was moving around in a way that made him impossible to predict. All it did was prove that Tim was alive and flaunt that Bruce couldn’t reach him.

It was difficult to consolidate those stories of missions and bloodshed with the Tim that resided in Bruce’s memory. There was no way to tell how much, if any, was at Tim’s hand, but the fact that the violence was there at all was worrying enough. His son was hurting, that much was clear. Bruce wanted nothing more than to find him and  _ save _ him, but he couldn’t reach him like this. 

Through all of the Gotham craziness and Justice League alien invasions that followed, Bruce had kept looking. As months- years- went on, eventually most of his allies had to give up on the mission, unwilling to continue to invest so much time into a boy that didn’t want to be found. The withdrawals stung, even if Bruce couldn’t help but see their reasoning. 

More alarmingly, Bruce had a strong suspicion that there was a villain-class file on Tim’s rumored exploits hidden somewhere in the Justice League system. Bruce was never brave enough to confirm it. He didn’t want to know.

There had just been no leads. There was nothing he could do.

Until now.

\---

By the time that Batman made it to the scene, the fight was winding down. There were the aftereffects of the carnage that had occurred, and a couple of places where ninja or assassins were still fighting each other, but it was clear that whoever had won the battle had done so efficiently. The fight had been wrapped up surprisingly quickly. 

The majority of those standing around all noticeably were marked with a red piece of clothing, subtle but enough of a pattern that Batman’s brain picked up on it. The clothing had been an identifier for their side, another well thought out move. Considering that forewarned coordination, it seemed that the attacking party was the one that emerged victorious. The worry for Tim’s safety building in Bruce’s gut swelled again, and he moved forward.

Strangely, none of the people in red moved to stop Batman as he passed through. They clearly noticed him as he entered each hallway, he could feel their eyes following him warily as he moved through steadily towards where he knew the center of the fight would be. But they did nothing more than watch, pausing slightly at his entrance to verify that he wouldn’t attack them unprovoked before continuing to clean up the carnage that had been left behind in the wake of battle. It was unsettling to constantly expect an attack that wasn’t coming, but it certainly made Bruce’s job easier.

Like that Bruce made his way swiftly towards the central chamber all but uninterrupted, noticing more patterns all the while. Most of the red-marked allies veered towards the younger side of the League’s forces, but not all. More of the enemies on the outer edges of the compound had been incapacitated and bound but left alive (which was strange in itself considering this was the League), but the closer to the central chamber Batman got the more intense the fighting seemed to have been. In a couple of spots the stone halls were charred with soot from small explosives. Bodies were already being relocated by the victors.

This pattern made more sense, considering Ra’s proclivity for keeping his most trusted allies close. The people in the center of the compound had been more loyal to the Demon’s Head, were generally better trained, and were much less likely to surrender during battle. Most of them had died for that conviction.

He still hadn’t found any signs of Tim. Bruce was trying really hard to not think through any of the possibilities as to why that could be. Tim was most likely to have been in the central room with Ra’s during the attack. Bruce could feel his pace quickening as he approached the already open ornate doors that lead to the command center of the compound.

The inside of the room was an utter mess, obviously having been the center of the action. Unmoving bodies littering the floor, furniture destroyed, floors and walls splattered occasionally with dirt and gore. Bruce tried not to analyze any of the details too closely. Various members of the victorious party were already moving around the space to efficiently clear the damage now that the takeover was complete.

And in the center of it all, to Bruce’s immense relief, was his son. Tim was easily identifiable through the crowd of activity despite being smaller and slighter than most of the others present. His dark hair punctuated by the streak of white was pulled back with a hair tie to keep his maskless face clear, and one arm was wrapped in a reddened bandage that he seemed to be ignoring. He was standing profile to Bruce, motioning to various areas of the room as he explained something to those next to him. The arm he was using to point held a sword, the blade of the weapon noticeably bloodied.

“Tim!” Bruce called before he could let the wave of emotion overwhelm him. The room stuttered to a halt around him at his entrance. 

Tim turned to glance at the cause of the distraction, green-tinted eyes betraying no surprise at Batman’s sudden appearance. Instead, he simply sheathed his sword and waved an arm dismissively to the Assassins he had been formerly conversing with before he took a step forward, studying Bruce carefully. 

“Batman,” Tim responded levelly. “I expected that you would be dropping by soon, but this is a bit sooner than I expected. Talia’s insiders must have got word out sooner than I thought.” His gaze flickered to either side before settling back on Bruce heavily. “You’re alone, too. I was half expecting the whole flock of you to be dropping from our rafters, though this isn’t entirely a surprise either.” 

This level of non-reaction to Bruce’s appearance was startling to the older man who had been envisioning this moment longingly for years. Tim seemed so much older than Bruce remembered. He hadn’t grown all that much in height since Bruce had last seen him, always doomed to be the smallest of his sons, but the set of his shoulders and tilt of his chin spoke of a rather unfamiliar confidence that Bruce had rarely seen in Tim. Everything about this reunion was putting Bruce off kilter.

“I came as soon as I heard, there wasn’t time to wait for any of the others.” Bruce offered, trying and failing again to read Tim’s body language. Last time they had talked Tim had been so desperate to talk to him, but now he was confoundingly closed off. Bruce decided to latch onto the most pressing concern first. “Are you hurt?”

Tim blinked in mild surprise, emotionless face slipping ever so slightly as he glanced towards his injured arm and then back to Bruce. “Nothing requiring immediate attention,” was his nonanswer. 

Bruce frowned internally while trying to keep his expression unreadable. He had to figure out what Tim was thinking, to figure out how to get him to come back to Gotham without a fight and without invoking the League’s wrath. This venture had been ill thought out.

Trying to buy time, Bruce’s eyes drifted to the side to study the many League members scattered around the room. They were all marked with the red as well, and something about that information pinged in the back of Bruce’s mind in a way he couldn’t properly analyze while distracted by talking to Tim. He pushed it back for later. Most of the people had gone back to cleaning, with a few still watching the family exchange with something between curiosity and concern.

“Could we possibly move this conversation elsewhere?” Bruce decided, suddenly struck by the urge for more privacy. Tim wouldn’t talk as openly when the League was watching his every move, right?

Tim, too, glanced at the subtly hovering ninjas and huffed out a small breath through his nose when he saw that they were being watched. It was the most emotion Tim had shown since Bruce had arrived. “You should know the League better than that, Bruce. They’d all find out one way or another. Besides, I’d rather stick around until the cleanup has been dealt with properly anyways. We’ve sniffed out most of Ra’s people at this point, but I’d much rather not have to deal with the fallout if we missed something.”

_ Ra’s? _ Bruce questioned silently, automatically latching onto the name and turning ever so slightly to scan over the room. Now that he thought about it, Bruce hadn’t noticed the immortal lingering around Tim like Bruce would have expected, especially with a Bat having appeared. He had expected a fight before even getting within visual distance of Tim. This was out of character for the Demon.

Some other detail from Tim’s wording pinged alarms again before Bruce fully processed them, sending his skin prickling slightly with dread. His eyes trailed past Tim towards the raised dais at the back of the room and settled on the unmoving form crumpled there that everyone was giving a wide berth. 

Green fabric soaked in red. Ra’s al Ghul was dead. Tim was noticeably unaffected by the loss in a way that didn’t line up with Bruce’s assumption that it was some variation of Stockholm Syndrome that had held his son here all this time. Thinking back, all of the League of Assassins members that had been marked with red, the inferred attacking party, had been deferring to Tim. That didn’t make sense considering that any enemy of Ra’s would have wanted to take out his Heir. Unless...

“What have you  _ done _ ?” Bruce almost stuttered. His brain was blanking out, reacting on instinct. Ra’s al Ghul was dead, directly or indirectly by his son’s hand. Tim had overthrown the League of Assassins. How had things spiraled so far in the time since Bruce had left? Tim had seemed so  _ stable  _ back then, like he was mostly just playing along. Did two years really make this much of a difference?

Tim’s face went hard, the small amount of emotion he had shown previously quickly shuttering away to nothing. Bruce had the sinking suspicion that he had crossed some hidden line.

“I’ve only done what I had to,” Tim said stiffly, cold enough to surprise Bruce. Suddenly everyone in the room was watching again, all pretense at working abandoned. “What did you expect, Bruce? That I’d just stay as your little morally perfect soldier while you left me under the wing of one of the world's greatest villains? That I would spend two years just sitting tight and waiting for you to save me?”

“I’ve been looking,” Bruce said almost desperately, unconsciously taking a step forward and stalling when about half the room twitched in response. “Ra’s had you too well hidden. I never gave up, I called in every favor. The Justice League, Talia, Slade. No one could find you. Today was the first time we got an actual lead, and I came straight here to bring you home.” 

“That’s not good enough!” Tim snarled, all pretense of calm gone, eyes flashing an unnaturally bright green that Bruce’s brain instinctively processed as dangerous. “I lost everyone and everything within a couple months, and then I threw myself into saving you because it was all I could do. I was the only one who believed you were alive, everyone else thought I was going insane. I  _ died _ , and no one but Ra’s even knew. I made every sacrifice, I did what it took, I made deals that I’m not proud of. I could feel myself slipping further and further, but it was worth it because I saved you.  _ I saved you _ , and you got to go home, and I was still here.

“You  _ promised _ you would come back for me. I waited for months for you to save me just like I did you, I stalled as much as I could when Ra’s tried to accelerate my training. I kept tabs on you when I could. I watched from a distance as Batman came back for real, and still there was nothing. I was sent out on missions, Ra’s got harsher with me, and there was still nothing.”

Tim’s breathing stayed even, face eerily calm even as he ranted. But his voice changed, shifting into something rawer, darker, angrier.

“It took a while, but at some point I realized that you weren’t coming. My trust in you was misplaced. Over time I adapted. I found new allies to depend on who would follow me without question. Ra’s kept trying to get me to fall in line, he started growing more and more unstable when I didn’t obey him thoughtlessly like he wanted. He certainly  _ tried, _ but none of it stuck. As he slipped, more and more of the League started to prefer me over him. When it became clear that Ra’s had passed a breaking point, I started planning for real. As you can see, I was successful once again.” 

Bruce couldn’t have been hurt worse if Tim had straight up stabbed him. He felt like he couldn't breathe through the pain and guilt filling his chest. Tim was so hurt, so damaged. His son was so far gone he didn’t know how to bridge the gap anymore.

“Let me help you, Tim,” he tried, at a loss for what else to say. “This is our fault, I know. Let us- let  _ me _ \- make it up to you. Come home, Tim. You don’t have to be what Ra’s tried to make you.”

Tim just laughed at that, a quick, pained sound. ”Ra’s didn’t do this Bruce, you and your family did. It may have been him that pulled the final trigger on my fate, but it was you and yours who crafted the gun and loaded the bullets. 

”Are you proud of me, Bruce? I’ve become exactly what you made me.”

The silence that followed was deafening. Bruce’s mind was shorting out, unable to figure out how to respond in the face of all of Tim’s rightful accusations. How could he possibly fix this? What words could possibly be said, what actions possibly taken, to repair a bond so thoroughly severed. The desperation and longing for an answer was weighing down Bruce’s heart and mind, but he could find no outlet to ease the pressure.

“Tim,” he choked out, suddenly terrified. “Son.” Tim looked away from him, avoiding the broken expression no doubt evident on Batman’s face.

“Get out,” Tim snapped sharply. “Go home, tell everyone that I’m in charge now, that the League is changing. Protection, not senseless killing. I would appreciate some free reign from suspicion, though I know it’s probably unlikely. I  _ am  _ the unstable, fallen hero after all. The new tragic tale to warn all the kids about. Someone had to take the role off of Jason’s hands now that he’s back on your side, huh? I was always meant to be his replacement after all.”

“Tim, no. You can’t just-”

“No, Bruce,” Tim snapped, resigned and determined eyes meeting Bruce’s, snapping his last tether of hope that there was anything he could do. “I’ve made my choice, it’s too late for you to have a say. You can’t hurt me anymore. Leave, and don’t come back.”

**Author's Note:**

> CW: Tim is implied to kill or be involved with killing Ra's off screen. It isn't described graphically, but he is clearly in the room and dead, to Bruce's shock (once he notices). Also, there are a lot of unspecific ninja/assassins that are referenced to have died during the battle.
> 
> Anyways, this was a fun one to write. I'll be back tomorrow with another post :)


End file.
